Product Description
Mae West, wise-cracking vaudeville performer, was one of the most controversial figures of her era. Rarely, however, do people think of Mae West as a writer. In Three Plays By Mae West, Lillian Schlissel brings this underexplored part of West's career to the fore by offering for the first time in book form, three of the plays West wrote in the 1920s--Sex (1926), The Drag (1927) and Pleasure Man (1928). With an insightful introduction by Schlissel, this book offers a unique look into to the life and early career of this legendary stage and screen actress. ... Read more

Product Description
In a world of trendsetting film icons, few are more familiar than Mae West. Yet for all her public controversy, West is also a mystery. Marybeth Hamilton combines elements of biography, cultural analysis, and social history to unmask West and reveal her commercial savvy, willpower, and truly shocking theatrical transgressions.Amazon.com Review
Mae West is one of the best-known celebrities of the20th century; she is a cultural symbol that, 65 years afterher heyday, continues to be remembered, imitated, and mocked. Yethow is it possible to know Mae West? She left no diaries,no letters. Her ghostwritten biography is inaccurate. The imageshe created in interviews and in plays and moviesoffers only slanted insight into her personal life. Acknowledgingall of this, Marybeth Hamilton has created a unique biography that focuses as much on the impact of West's public persona as itdoes on speculations about her private self. Hamilton's take on Mae West isparticularly interesting when she focuses on West's appeal togay culture and the idea, which originated as long ago as the1930s, that West was a female impersonator. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Cheap ploy
The author has stumbled onto a gimmicky trick to get herself published, but one as old as time: Iconoclasty.In other words, she picks a subject almost at random.Today its delta blues music, tomorrow its Mae West.Next week it might be The Beatles or Picasso.It doesn't matter.Then write a book "shattering" everyones image of said topic.Wow, see how wrong you were about that.I must be a great author to point that out.Problem is, its all in her head.Why only a few reviews of each of her books?Because not many people give her any credibility.Even less care.Notice the cliche'd academic style title too: Statement, colon, three words.Always three words.Here's a title for you, I'm Trying Too Hard: Academia, Pretension, and the Desperate Need to Get Published.

Excellent description of those vaudeville days
Made me wish I was there back then to see some of those (now) obscure and (now) little-remembered performers!

Although the book follows Mae's career, and reveals her exceptional talent and her extremely creative ability to be able to Think On the Run and/or In the Paddy Wagon, (so to speak) it does not give us the essence or the character of Mae the Woman. In many places it bogs down with critical analysis instead of narrative.

However, I DID find it interesting enough to read through to the end, AND the book piqued my interest enough to make me go to my local library and pick up other books on Mae West that have more of her "personality" in them.

NASTY, INNACURATE "FICTION!"
Atrocious is the word for this horribly researched, terribly written piece of "fiction."This book in no way reflects anything very accurate about the true Mae West.It is totally unfair, and amounts to a vicious attack designed to assassinate the character of the legendary film star Mae West.No fan should read this disastrous hodge-podge of disinformation, and for that matter, no one should read such an unfair book at all.Having known Mae West and knowing a tremendous amount of information about her career and her life, I found this diatribe completely without any kind of merit.The "author" (if that is what one would call this nasty writer) has no sense of balance at all.This is one of the most unfair, one-sided, pathetic excuses for a "biography" I have ever had the displeasure of reading.It is no wonder than when this piece of crap was released it was stillborn.It was and is a colossal failure both in sales and in what it set out to do.

Very early in West's career in this book, the author loses all credibility by her constant and horrendous assault (and that is exactly what it is) on West.The whole second part of the book is nothing but an angry, bitter attack against West, which leaves out so much about West, but delves up nothing but one constant, angry attack after the other.It is NEGATIVE beyond comprehension!

When I finished reading this mess, I felt like I had been assaulted myself, and was ashamed that I even read anything so negative to the extreme.The "author" attacks West on ALL levels, for any and ALL reasons, and guesses at alleged "facts" rather than revealing anything new here.The entire book is just a simple-minded rehash of other previously published material and ALMOST entirely in the negative.No fair-minded person could give any credibility to a "work" so vicious, so obviously full of just plain hate!I was offended to the 9th degree.Never have I read a book full of such venom, untruths, and consistently inaccurate information.Anyone could have performed better research than this 4th rate writer.This mockery of an autobiographical account is submerged by the bitter, twisted and demented mind of the pathetic excuse for an author (not to mention human being).A TRULY, uncompassionate, possibly insane witch wrote this nasty piece of crap!!!

You won't find out anything that is true or accurate about the great Mae West here, but you will find distortions, countless information about other plays and actors (that have nothing to do with West) and an appalling lack of feeling and humanity.One of the LOWEST, CHEAPEST pieces of trash ever written, and one of the most UNSUCCESSFUL too!!!

Early Mae
This book uncovers every detail of Mae Wests early career. Though Hamilton seems to accent on the negative, those who love Mae West will relish in the new details and great photos. The author is the exact opposite of Mae West, one can easlily surmise, so every triumpth of West's is quickly dashed with a failure, indicating an almost peciliar jealousy on behalf of the author towards her subject! THAT is what makes this book so interesting.

read this book!
If you are interested in films, plays, censorship, New York, street life, sexual politics, life, oh yes, and Mae West, you just have to read this amazing book.

Witty, savvy, sophisticated, informed, nuanced, and inparts, just plain brilliant, this is a not-to-miss literary treat thatemulates the style of its subject. Changed my life. ... Read more

Product Description
This provocative work analyzes Mae West's long life and productive career in three major phases: the early theater years, her meteoric film career in the thirties, and her subsequent life as a popular culture legend. It examines her theatrical approach to life and her unique talent for translating a low comic variety style into a subtle satire of melodramatic conventions. West's attempts to control her comic creation led to many public battles over her claims to authorship of her plays and filmscripts. The book's bibliography explores her talents as a writer, summarizing the plays and books she wrote and investigating the validity of those claims. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Definitive Biography of Mae West
Dr. Ward has done a superior academic biography of Mae West.While the title says "A Bio-Bibliography" the book is far more than that...it is a jumping-off point for further research for future generations of scholars.

A History Lesson For Mae West Devotees
Carol M. Ward's"Mae West A Bio-Bibliography" published in 1989 offers an excellent starting point for the Mae West Scholar.Ward provides a wide range of sources to delve into how the popular press perceived Mae West, however, the list is far from exhaustive and now somewhat dated.
Ward'stext isinvaluable in this age of "cyber research."Nothing beatsthe old fashionedmethod ofresearching - pouring over microfilm and old magazine clippings, and Ward's meticulous citations point the way for serious West buffs to find out more about her.

Excellent Career Study of an American Icon
This book is quite expensive but after all it was written mainly for academic libraries, not really for purchases by the general public.If you want a standard "biography" with a ton of photos and a dust jacket, this is not for you.If you are interested in a serious examination of this one-of-a-kind star, you could not do better.Several other authors have tried to do this with more mainstream books on West, but Ward is unmatched in looking at West from the eyes of a historian and a critic.She is also clearly admires West's accomplishments but is never fawning.An outstanding work.

Details, details
This is a bio-bibliography. So everything you read, you can verify by finding the original somewhere. Wonderfully researched, and of course perfectly accurate (how could it NOT be?). You are paying for all of the great research, and it is worth every penny. It is invaluable to anyone who is writing a book on Mae West, or researching her career. ... Read more

Product Description
Mae West ("Too much of a good thing can be wonderful") continues to reverberate through American popular culture. Here Curry examines the interplay between West's bawdy, worldly persona & 20th-century gender & media politics. In the 1930s, she was a lightning rod for debates over morality & censorship. In the 1970s, the complexity of her portrayal of gender made her a controversial figure for both the gay rights & feminist movements. This book analyzes the symbolic roles that West has occupied, arguing that West represents a carefully orchestrated transgression of race, class, & gender expectation. Also illustrates how icons of pop culture often distill contested social issues, serving diverse & even contradictory political functions. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A Feminist Take On Mae West
Ramona Curry's "Too Much of a Good Thing: Mae West as Cultural Icon," published in 1996, is a university press publication that examines Mae West's contributions to the Feminist Movement and evaluates her role as a female icon of the twentieth century. This treatment of West is a typical academic text with good research of textual sources, but with little or no interviews and featuring theory that is hit or miss.
When Mae West was asked why she never wrote an article supporting the Feminist Movement she reportably drawled, "They never asked me."

Pretentious silly book on a legend
This is a fairly ridiculous, heavy handed attempt at analyzing the appeal of one of the greatest movie stars ever.This writer sees everything about Mae as "camp" (wait til you read her detailed analysis of La West's appearance on MISTER ED!!) and although she seems pro-West, apparently sees her mainly as someone who gays to copy and idolize, not as a serious pop culture icon for the mainstream public.Super silly and very heavy handed.Beulah, peel me a raspberry!!! ... Read more

Product Description
Mae West is Dead represents the best of contemporary lesbian and gay fiction in Britain and the United States. This edition includes a new story by Adam Mars-Jones. ... Read more

Product Description
The sex goddess's seemingly endless power to influence and fascinate, to achieve in a sense her own self-reproduction through many decades of "re-makeovers" reveals her positioning in American culture as not only a lasting image but also as a potentially powerful and subversive force. The sex goddess is often thought by feminist film theorists to be little more than a projection of the male imaginary. However, this book makes a necessary correction to this trend by demonstrating how the actresses performing the role of sex goddess in fact use the feminine imaginary to create their own agency. Through their performance of "hyper" femininity, and with their seductive power, they exert control not only over their filmic narrative "targets of seduction" but their viewers as well.The ability to hold their objects of seduction in such thrall suggests that the image of the sex goddess possesses a power far more subversive than what has been previously explored; in fact, to date there has not yet been a critical study of the sex goddess in film. Cinema becomes a place where the sex goddess's designation as sex itself can further suggest her bodily signification as a whole discourse on sex outside of her cinematic representation, thus loading her body to be read almost entirely in terms of sex and its corresponding contemporary social thought. During the period of Classical Hollywood Cinema, the construct of the sex goddess warrants especial attention because of what this study can reveal in broad terms about cultural ideas of feminine sexuality, American cinema, and visual culture.In the first critical study of the sex goddess in film, Jessica Hope Jordan illustrates how Jean Harlow uses her sexualized body to "affect" and seduce viewers away from any primary identification with those characters and their plotlines that are supposed to lead the film, to identifying instead with the kind of sexual empowerment and self-possession her characters consistently display. Linking the idea of sexual empowerment to the filmic and public celebration of hyper-feminine sexuality, the book additionally covers previous feminist discussions of Mae West's performances as "feminist camp" to argue that West sought to both celebrate and embody for women viewers what she viewed as cultural ideals of femininity and women's sexuality. With Lana Turner and the "cinematic code," the book considers the many problems inherent in both the filmic and public celebration of hyper-feminine sexuality in relation to censorship and considers the effects of the Hays Code on hyper-feminine sexuality as depicted in film noir. The book also importantly presents the first critical discussion of the actress Jayne Mansfield, suggesting that her 1950s open acceptance, celebration, and public promotion of her feminine sexuality, both onscreen and off, makes her not only a precursor of the more sexually liberated 60s, but also, like the other actresses discussed here, a kind of prescient performance artist, even theorist, of feminine sexuality in particular, and cultural ideas about sexuality more generally. Beyond recouping her image as feminist, the book demonstrates how the kind of desire aroused by the sex goddess, a desire which remains endlessly suspended, works as a supreme example of the aesthetic apparatus of cinema itself.This is an important book for inclusion in all film, film history, film theory, gender and sexuality studies, women's studies, and American studies collections. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

How the west was really won
This was required reading for a graduate course in the history of American military affairs.William Goetzmann's Army Exploration in the American West, is most interested in how the Corps' actions and experiments "had utility and meaning for the country as a whole," and he argues the entire nation's "total body of knowledge increased as a result of the army's work on the frontier.His evidence includes the army's involvement in surveying, mapping, and determining boundaries on the western frontier.Goetzmann's book also focuses on a specific topic, specifically on the Corps of Topographical Engineers' role in westward expansion.Goetzmann also conducts a quantitative analysis of how military spending contributed to the economic development of the frontier, specifically in the Southwest.Goetzmann's book is an excellent example of economic history, and he contends that between 1846 and 1861, "the army was the single most significant factor in the economic development of the Southwest."Goetzmann proves this assertion by showing the army's involvement in mining, agriculture, and ranching, and his work also explores how the army introduced money into the local market and fostered increased production.Goetzmann's book greatly contributes to our understanding of the army's involvement in the American West.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in military history, and American history.

How the west was really won
This was required reading for a graduate course in the history of American military affairs.William Goetzmann's Army Exploration in the American West, is most interested in how the Corps' actions and experiments "had utility and meaning for the country as a whole," and he argues the entire nation's "total body of knowledge increased as a result of the army's work on the frontier.His evidence includes the army's involvement in surveying, mapping, and determining boundaries on the western frontier.Goetzmann's book also focuses on a specific topic, specifically on the Corps of Topographical Engineers' role in westward expansion.Goetzmann also conducts a quantitative analysis of how military spending contributed to the economic development of the frontier, specifically in the Southwest.Goetzmann's book is an excellent example of economic history, and he contends that between 1846 and 1861, "the army was the single most significant factor in the economic development of the Southwest."Goetzmann proves this assertion by showing the army's involvement in mining, agriculture, and ranching, and his work also explores how the army introduced money into the local market and fostered increased production.Goetzmann's book greatly contributes to our understanding of the army's involvement in the American West.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in military history, and American history.

How the west was really won
This was required reading for a graduate course in the history of American military affairs.William Goetzmann's Army Exploration in the American West, is most interested in how the Corps' actions and experiments "had utility and meaning for the country as a whole," and he argues the entire nation's "total body of knowledge increased as a result of the army's work on the frontier.His evidence includes the army's involvement in surveying, mapping, and determining boundaries on the western frontier.Goetzmann's book also focuses on a specific topic, specifically on the Corps of Topographical Engineers' role in westward expansion.Goetzmann also conducts a quantitative analysis of how military spending contributed to the economic development of the frontier, specifically in the Southwest.Goetzmann's book is an excellent example of economic history, and he contends that between 1846 and 1861, "the army was the single most significant factor in the economic development of the Southwest."Goetzmann proves this assertion by showing the army's involvement in mining, agriculture, and ranching, and his work also explores how the army introduced money into the local market and fostered increased production.Goetzmann's book greatly contributes to our understanding of the army's involvement in the American West.

Recommended reading for anyone interested in military history, and American history.

Absorbing!
We need more historians like William H. Goetzmann. Focusing on the history of the Army's Topographical Engineers we get a completely different view of the Cowboy's and Indians portrayal of the American West that Hollywood likes to keep repeating. Goetzmann shows that almost to a man, and despite many faults, these engineers, the cream of each West Point graduating class, made a most remarkable contribution to the exploration, definition and integration of the American West into the rest of the country at large.

An extension of first the Executive branch and then subsequently of the Congress itself, these men not only defined what others claimed they saw, they scientifically refined what existed to a point where others, who could not see for themselves, could rely with the utmost confidence that things were as reported. Along the way, they influenced everything from much needed infrastructure changes such as road and bridge building, reconnaissance, railroad surveys, raw exploration, and map making to establishing frontier forts and our national boundaries themselves.

These men accomplished for the United States what the English, French, Russians, Spanish and native peoples could not. They reported an accurate, scientifically based, in-depth understanding of what would be required to conquer and subdue a land that, from the beginning of time, had avoided and frustrated any and all attempts at civilization. This is the amazing story of the men who, more than any other single group, led in the development of the American West.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Looking for Derek Taylor
...
Hello, my name is Heather, I have become enamored of this man.

Derek Taylor, I mean; his work, his manner, his mantality
(Yes, the spelling is correct.)
And I've never met him before.
And I never will. *grin*
But that's not the point, is it? The point is
to enjoy people like this, wherever they
can be found---And you?

And I post this on Valentines' Day. *laugh* Which I do not
believe in. I don't think Derek Taylor did either. The idea of
only ONE day of love expressed...

is abhorent. *grin*

Here, we have, exhibit A: a guy who influenced the Beatles, hung
with them, helped with them, and I find nothing, when I come
looking for him.

Well, guess what? This book rocks. And the prose, and the people
Derek talked about--people, yes, so many people--and the
insights, are as swift and as bright and as deep as a new
thought, in the dark.

Who'd've thought I'd go looking, for the first time, in my life, for the Beatles, and find this guy.

Amazing. You should read him.
As he sure as hell read
all of YOU *grin*

Find this book. Get this man's work seen.

I thank you.

Meanwhile, read this piece, that I wrote, after searching for Derek. You may just like it.

+++

Billions and billions of Beatle pictures. You can't see the fawking ROAD for Beatles pictures. Every once in a while though I'd find Derek. Hiding on a page. Standing so close, so intent, so integral to the mood, you almost wondered why you hadn't seen him more often in all those BLOODY photos. Needless to say, he (and others like him) had been cropped from view. We're here to see the Beatleboys, not the Beatleaides, not the Beatlekeepers, not the Beatle people so essential to the smooth-running operation that most fans didn't even know who the hell they were.

Only that they often stood as a roadblock, a deterrent, a buffer to Beatle-baked people who clamoured for yet another BLOODY photo, yet another autograph, yet another insightful interview, yet another money-making endorsement, yet another banal or boring conversation with their Beatle boygods.

Meanwhile, people like Derek Taylor provided an attempt at clarity, a soothing song in the ever-widening gyre of madness that hurricaned about them; a smoke-festooned-and-Scotch-laced Alka Seltzer to the moptop FabFour sanity and sense of self.

It wasn't just Derek. Without Brian Epstein, Peter Brown, Mal Evans, Neil Aspinall or even George Martin, I don't think the Beatles would have existed.

Oh, they'd be out there somewhere, playing in a dingy Cavernlike club. But I don't believe they would have reached the almost mythic proportions of pop/rock stardom they enjoyed (even to this day) without the incredibly devoted, rational and skilled people backing them up, holding their drunken heads or taking a punch for the Beatle benefit. Less insightful folks might feel otherwise, but if you look close, REAL close, you can see a pattern in the chain of command that surrounded these lovely lads from Liverpool.

And standing close by, cigarette barely dangling from his lips, his expression so dark, so unaffected was Derek. Derek's dark eyes always watching, watching. Exuding calm. (Whether he felt calm or not.) To be found in a photo. More than just a confidante; more than just a majordomo; more than just a father-figure to four cheeky chappies from a small seaport in the British Isles, Derek was their friend. He carried insights into each and every Beatle boy that shown through every press release he ever composed. He'd be on hand for all the cheer and all the paranoid doomsaying. Following George out a flashbulbed front door; standing protectively within shielding distance of any one Beatle that was about; striding through an airport walkway, like a military sergeant in a dark sharp-shouldered Savile row suit, offsetting Paul and John's white ones; leaning against an Apple-rotting rooftop wall, dressed in a caramel-coloured car coat, listening in a reverie to one last let-it-be concert from those Beatle boys he so adored; uncropped from a classic Beatle photo (There is a photo of Paul and his then girlfriend Jane Asher, returning from holiday in the Virgin Islands. I found a photo where Derek is walking along right beside Jane. Ha!)...there he is. Derek Taylor.


You should know this man. And be inspired by his words. As I am.

Derek, speaking, on The Beatles: http://www.beatlesagain.com/bvoices/derek.ram
(from Beatlesagain.com)

Derek, "As Time goes by" excerpt from a sixties memoir http://homepage.ntlworld.com/carousel/pob19.html
(from "You are the Plastic Ono band" website http://homepage.ntlworld.com/carousel/pob00.html )

Derek, autobiography, that I have yet to find: http://www.jadebox.com/nilsson/fiftyyrs.gif
(image from Harry Nillson's websitehttp://www.harrynilsson.com/article19693.html ) ... Read more

Product Description
Written by a foremost authority on popular culture, Mae West: "She Who Laughs, Lasts" is a biographical study of a very popular, even legendary, twentieth-century figure that places her in the larger context of the changing times spanned by her fifty-year career. West's life and work offer information and insight into women's history as well as the history of popular culture. Her experiences as an independent woman with bold views of women's sexuality were a kind of barometer of America's changing values. Financially independent and generally unattached, she offered women an unusual model for life. Her celebrity status gave her public exposure beyond the expectations or desires of most entertainers. Her struggle with censorship provided a continuing public stage for her as an individual of indomitable will. As a writer and performer, Mae West was well ahead of her time. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

An American Entertainment Pioneer
June Sochen's "Mae West: She Who Laugh's Last," published in 1992 in a paperback edition, comprised part of an American Biographical History Series.Aimed at a sophisticated audience, Schon made the point, "West was not a social activist, an organizer, or a member of any women's group.The only group she belonged to was the Mae West Fan Club.She was an American pioneer:She created herself, became a rugged individualist and permanently imprinted her image on the American imagination."
Highly recommended forthe serious Mae West scholar.

Small but good book
Well researched and written. A little book, part of a series I think, but worth buying. No photos unfortunately, but a good addition to a Mae West book collection. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

HowNOTTo Research A Biography
British entertainment writer, Fergus Cashin ghosted a number of show business autobiographies prior to undertaking his examination of Mae West's career published in 1981, shortly after her death.Cashin referred toWest being "of indeterminate sex" and claimed"the marathon love sessions of nonstop bed pounding...went on in Mae's head and probably nowhere else."
Critics panned Cashin for raising rhetorical questions and not conducting any original research.His book was released in England in hardback edition, and sold in the American market in a paperback version.The Library of Congress had a copy of Cashin's book in its collection, which has since inexplicablygone missing.
Perhaps the wrath of Miss West's spirit vapourizedthisoffensive text.For Mae West completists, this bizarre tome makes foran amusing, if inaccurate account of perhaps the most fascinating entertainer of the twentieth century.

Ludicrous assumptions
This book is full of speculation (among other things) from cover to cover. The author is obsessed with the notion that Mae West was a man. This was written just after she passed away, and clearly Mr. Cashin wanted to "cash-in". Not recommended. ... Read more

Product Description
From poignant to silly, brilliant to ridiculous, here are hundreds of quips and quotes from movie stars, musicians, singers,stage actors, comedians--then and now--arranged by subject matter including Fame, Success, Family, Sex, Aging, and more. ... Read more

Product Description
Tess, the protagonist/narrator of Surviving Mae West , is a young West Virginia woman haunted by the trauma of a brutal rape. The novel opens on the day that Tess begins working as a prostitute in a New York City brothel, although her family believes she's an ordinary waitress in a Mexican restaurant.

Surviving Mae West is constructed in a journal format, which allows Tess to emerge with utter candor and realism as readers become privy to her secrets and sink into her complex inner world where intimacy is both dreaded and desired.

Rodd shatters gender stereotypes with her complex everyday-life portrait of a woman employed in the oldest profession. Surviving Mae West is an uncensored story of survival and renewal, told by a narrator as unabashed as John Cleland's Fanny Hill, as flawed and plucky as Wally Lamb's Dolores Price, and as resilient as Dorothy Allison's Bone.

"Rodd's apare but vivid prose echoes the beauty of the landscapes she writes about. She is a complex new voice rising out of Appalachia." -Annie Dillard ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Vivid, graphic, but still easy to swallow
I'd actually give it 4 1/2 stars, but the system won't let me!

It is an awesome book; and I loved it.It was very well written and an easy, enjoyable read.Once I got about twenty pages into it, I had a hard time putting it down.While it had a few dark moments, it was witty, clever, and lighter than I had anticipated.I could relate to the main character, Tess, in her recovery from rape and struggle to find her way.It is an interesting journey through the NY brothel, the dynamics of relationships (family, friends, and johns), and her inner emotions.She is so real, down to earth, and honest about her life.

The language of descriptions and metaphors was rich and vivid.The world through Tess' eyes was rendered so clearly, her voice was such a strong one, that I felt I was there seeing what she was seeing and feeling what she was feeling.I got lost in the wonderful and creative details of the story.

The interesting thing is the psychological aspect of the novel - the exploration of the rape victim's mind and what she does in response - very real world.It is a realistic reflection on what many young women go through.Also, it helped humanize prostitutes and strippers.An eye opener. ... Read more